Finding Faith
by The.Fully.Mental.One
Summary: AU. The Sorting Hat looks past Draco Malfoy's family name during his sorting, and suddenly his future takes a much different turn than what is expected. First Year, no pairings.


**AN- While rereading the Harry Potter series, I realized that many of the characters displayed traits that were suited to other houses than the ones they were sorted into. This fic came to me when I was thinking about Draco, and how his sorting might have gone had the Sorting Hat done its job properly and put Draco where he belonged. **

**Draco is the only one whose sorting has been changed in this fic.**

**Enjoy!**

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I would never admit it, but I was excited to be going to Hogwarts.

Yes, I, Draco Malfoy, actually wanted to go to school, even if I had to attend classes with blood traitors and mudbloods. It was not like I would have to sleep in the same room as that trash though- Slytherin house had standards after all. And there was no way someone with blood as pure as mine could go anywhere else. Ravenclaw could have been a great house as well, but allowing scum in definitely questioned their title as the "House of Intelligence". A muggle handed a wand could not do anything, and Father said that's all a mudblood added up to. They were better off with the idiots in Gryffindor, or in the cesspool of magical waste, Hufflepuff.

On the train ride there, I sat with Theodore Nott. His father and my father were friends, and he was a pureblood (albeit one rumored to have a squib great grandfather). Despite the troubling gossip about his family tree, father nodded his approval when we walked onto the Hogwarts Express together. My fathers approval was all I needed, although mothers smile as she kissed me goodbye was not that bad as well. There would be no need for them to be embarrassed with my behavior. I would do all that was asked of me, and would uphold the proud Malfoy name. There was nothing that mattered to me more than my parents respect, for it was hard to get.

Oh, mother loved me and always coddled me. Father was rarely around though, but he told me it was because he was fighting the mudblood and blood traitor takeover of the ministry. These people took the jobs of decent purebloods who, do to the merit of their blood, had an obviously higher level of magical skill. This was naturally unfair in my eyes, so I was determined that the same would not happen at Hogwarts. The mudbloods would know their place when I took out my wand.

It was amazing though, to see the people who did not realize trash's obvious inferiority. Crabbe and Goyle followed me when I went to help the Potter boy out in his choice of friends, and also followed me out when Potter rejected my offer of friendship. He rejected a Malfoy for a Weasely!

"It must be the mudblood in him" I told Nott later in our compartment, Crabbe and Goyle having left to steal candy from the trolley.

He nodded, rolling his eyes "His father was a pureblood from a good family, and he married a muggle. No wonder why the Dark Lord wanted to get rid of him. Oh yeah, Dad's shown me a couple of wicked hexes...we can try them out on Hufflepuffs tomorrow."

I sniggered as I took out my wand, envisioning people finally realizing the superiority of blood when they saw my spellwork. Even the Dark Lord would be happy to have me leading his armies with my wandwork, and I would not let wizarding society down. I patiently copied Notts hand motions and repeated the incantations, and although I did not manage anything more than a few sparks, I felt more powerful in that instant than I had ever before.

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The Great Hall was as magnificent as mother told me in her stories. By the way the bushy haired girl in front of me whispered of how the ceiling was enchanted to reflect the weather outside I could tell she was a pureblood- or at least a somewhat redeemable half blood- but I was not yet sure of the most of the others. The curly haired boy next to me held himself with a distinguishable pride, so I assumed he was a pureblood who I had not yet met in the many family parties. Another boy was almost certainly a mudblood, with his pudgy face and trembly hands that clutched at a toad.

This thought was immediately dashed when it was his time to be sorted. The name "Longbottom, Neville" was called out and he stumbled up to the stool where the hat took a long time to sort him. The Longbottoms were a very old clan, and his grandmother was a respected member of the Wizarding World. My own father spoke highly of her, and yet one of her relations was a fat little boy? Perhaps it was just a coincidence, or the boys father married a filthy muggle. That had to be it. There would be no way a proper pureblood would ever claim that Neville- who forgot to take the hat off and had to run back to return it- was part of their family in more than name.

I walked regally up to the stool when it was my time to be called. As I sat proudly as befitting a Malfoy, I glimpsed the Slytherin house- my future family- smiling at me in a slightly predatory way that I was not quite sure I liked.

"_Interesting thoughts to be having of your 'future house'" _a snide voice said in my head, and it was only the decade of being trained in the proper manner that prevented me from jumping up. As it were, I gave an involuntary jerk, before I realized that this was indeed the sorting hat looking inside my head.

"Can we just get this over with?" I thought, "We already both know where I'm going."

Something that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle appeared as a reply _"I don't think you know the half of it. Your true potential...now yes, this is very..."_

"I'm going to Slytherin like the rest of my family! I've been working too hard, much too hard to fail mother and father now!" I screamed in my head as the hat made disparaging comments about my possible Gryffindor potential.

"_Yes...yes! With that loyalty, that drive...there really is no other place for you!"_

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

About bloody well time!

Wait a second...did the hat really just say...

"Hufflepuff, Mr. Malfoy. The table's that way" the woman in charge of the sorting whispered in my ear as I made to move towards the stunned looking Slytherin table.

No. This had to be some sort of joke. I stood at the front for a couple of moments, tempted to stomp on the hat, before I regained my pride and walked towards the cheering yellow and black garbed students.

Walking to my death could not have been any worse. (Hufflepuff! With the dunder heads!) Most eyes were staring at me, even as the next person shuffled to the front to get sorted. (Malfoys were always Slytherins! What would father say!) As I regally glided past the Gryffindor table (Even Gryffindor was preferable, there was some dignity in being brave and heroic- Mothers cousin was sorted there, I heard, and he ended up on the right side in the end), I suddenly realized I must be in some sort of bad dream. Yes! That was it. I was going to wake up any second now on the Hogwarts Express where I had dozed off and had this nightmare...

Unfortunately, this dream appeared to be exceptionally long as I had not woken up by the time I reached the table. I sat my dream self down next to the happy looking boy with curly hair I had pegged for a pureblood before the sorting. A handsome boy with dark hair looked curiously at me from across the table, and I found myself- or my dream self- lifting my nose up. No matter how pureblooded he looked, he had to be from the dregs of society to be sorted here. He had probably never seen a real pureblood this close before, so he was in awe of just how much power radiated from us.

The sorting was over with several others being sorted to Hufflepuff (some of them looked familiar...maybe it was foresight. I would have to tell Nott about this when I wake up- maybe I had a latent seer ability). Once Zabini skittered off to the cheering Slytherins, I found the curly haired pureblooded looking boy staring at the food that suddenly appeared in front of him as if he had never seen dinners delivered by house elf before. Perhaps he was from a poorer family- that would explain his unfortunate sorting.

No matter the riches, it was still a respectable purebloods duty to band together with other purebloods provided they weren't blood traitors. I turned to the boy, offering my hand "Draco Malfoy. Pureblooded, recorded family records from before the 1100's."

The boy looked slightly alarmed- good, everyone respected the Malfoy's- but still turned to shake my hand with a welcoming smile. "Nice to meet you! I'm Justin Finch-Fletchey of Fleterdshire. I had my name down for Eton, but I received the letter, and my parents were so surprised! No one in the family is magic, but they agreed to let me come here."

I dropped his hand in shock. I, a Malfoy, had been fooled into thinking a mudblood was a pureblood! What else was going to happen in this crazy nightmare?

The boy who had been eyeing me from across the table finally spoke up, offering his hand to the insulted looking mudblood Fit- Florent or whatever ridiculous muggle name he had. Muggle naming traditions- or lack thereof- were heinous and not worth my precious time to ponder.

"Cedric Diggory, third year. I have to say, welcome to Hufflepuff! It looks like we have a good group this year- maybe we'll actually be in the running for the house cup." he said with a winning smile, actually making eye contact with the mudblood, who slid into his easy manner again as he questioned the older boy about what exactly the house cup was. I couldn't believe my (dream) eyes. This entire experience felt so real, from the filet mignon I chewed in my mouth to the chatter around the room. But it had to be a dream- in what other universe would a son from the famous Diggory family be consorting politely with someone below his level?

I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, stunning me back to reality. Finally, I would be out of this dream. All I had to do was close my eyes and open them again...To the face of a scared looking girl sitting on my other side. Of the Hufflepuff table.

"I'm sorry!" she squealed, alarm flashing in her bluish eyes, "I wasn't watching, and my I turned around and hit you with my fork..." the girl stopped talking when she looked at my face that was lit up with scorn for her. How dare she, a girl so obviously a mudblood with her chubby face, stab the scion of the Malfoy family?

It wasn't until she dropped the fork she was brandishing and several others sitting around me gasped that I realized I spoke that last thought out loud. Probably not the smartest idea around blood traitors and mudbloods, but I was too incensed with her to care. Why had I not yet awoken? Unless this was reality...no, I could not think that.

The girl who stabbed me looked confused, and the Diggory boy looked like he was going to stab me with his fork on purpose in a different area. The others started murmuring and glaring at me, dispelling their oblivious, kindly Huffflepuff image.

"Don't you dare use that word here again." Diggory hissed, and others nodded vehemently. Maybe the yellow and black on their robes stood for them being bumblebee's after all, but as much as the initial sting hurts, it's the only thing they can do before they die. I scoffed, and moodily returned to my food, ignoring the boisterious conversation that had begun to pick up around me. It was humiliating just how _loud _this table was, especially considering I was raised to associate with polite company. The Slytherin table- that was were I truly belonged, with everyone talking in softer tones and looking dignified. Nott caught my eye from across the hall and gave a me a smile that was more of a smirk and lifted his eyebrows in a superior way.

It was only then that I realized that I wasn't stuck in a dream. I, Draco Malfoy, pureblood extraordinaire, was a Hufflepuff.

Oh bugger.


End file.
